Sony FE 12-24mm F/4 G SEL1224G

This Sony zoom covers an ultra-wide 12–24mm range on full-frame E-mount bodies. It suits landscape, architecture and interior photography, where 12mm lets you frame a whole room or a tall building from close in. Zooming to 24mm gives a milder wide view when you want a tighter, more natural framing.

Sony launched the lens in 2017, and it remains in production today. The main trade-off is the f/4 maximum aperture, so dim interiors call for a higher ISO setting or a steady support. Stabilisation and a front filter thread are covered below.

The range can also give environmental portraits a strong sense of place, though faces need care at 12mm, where close framing stretches features.

The lens weighs 1 lb 3.9 oz (565 g). It is 3.43 in (87 mm) wide and 4.62 in (117.4 mm) long, a manageable size for a full-frame ultra-wide zoom.

There is no front filter thread, so a screw-in filter cannot attach directly to the lens. Zooming uses a rotary ring turned by hand.

At 12mm the lens makes nearby subjects loom and sweeps in vast foregrounds and skies. That is a strong look for grand landscapes and for interiors where a doorway is the only shooting position. Zooming to 24mm keeps a wide but more controlled view, useful for architecture where you want less dramatic perspective.

The constant f/4 aperture stays available through the whole zoom range, so exposure does not change as you zoom. At f/4, ultra-wide scenes render with generous depth of field, which helps keep a foreground rock and a distant ridge sharp together. For moving subjects, the wide view leaves room around the subject, so you can frame quickly and crop later.

Close focusing at 0.9 ft (28 cm) lets you move right up to a foreground detail. Floor tiles or a gatepost can fill the lower frame while the scene continues behind it. Tilting the camera up at 12mm also exaggerates the height of buildings. The lens scores 67/100 in our optics specification assessment.

The lens has no built-in stabilisation, so steadying the camera in low light falls to shutter choice, ISO or a support. At 12mm, small camera movements matter less than at long focal lengths, but twilight interiors still reward a steady hand. Its specification score for features is 32/100.

Weather sealing guards the lens against dust and moisture, a useful safeguard for landscape work in changeable conditions. The front element carries no fluorine coating, so it needs more careful cleaning after rain or sea spray. There is also no zoom lock to hold the barrel at a chosen focal length.

The design uses 17 elements in 13 groups, including aspherical surfaces and both low-dispersion and super low-dispersion glass. Aspherical surfaces help correct distortion, which can otherwise curve straight edges such as building lines at the wide end. The low-dispersion glass helps reduce chromatic aberration, the coloured fringes that can appear along high-contrast edges like branches against a bright sky.